A Natural History of Human Emotions

Using Charles Darwin's survey of emotions as a starting point, Walton examines the history of each of our core emotions—fear, anger, disgust, sadness, jealousy, contempt, shame, embarrassment, surprise, and happiness—and how these emotions have influenced both cultural and social history. We learn that primitive fear served as the engine of religious belief, while a desire for happiness led to humankind’s first musings on achieving a perfect utopia. Challenging the notion that human emotion has remained constant, Walton explains why, in the last 250 years, society has changed its unwritten rules for what can be expressed in public and in private.